we are pleased to have you join us. >> thank you. i want to thank the alliance for the invitation in today's briefing. i would like to start my remarks with a more personal nature. these represent bitter months. four weeks from now we will as a milestone the 9/11.rsary of deployed fromng my home in rochester, and as i came to new york city, saw the billowing smoke in the air, and and thelower manhattan debris of the trade center towers that had collapsed only moments before. i was volunteering with the american red cross and working with the center for mental .ealth and hygiene 2003, i years later in responded again to new york city. i happen to be there again when the blackout occurred. washe early hours there psychological angst because many people thought this might the and active terrorism. time the playing aid to over 80 fires in eight hours. weeks, in just a couple august 29 will mark the anniversary of hurricane katrina, a storm that caused 1500 deaths and displaced people. many of you know about that. these events that occurr